808 State were a huge influence on me growing up in the 90s, with their music and their infamous radio show. I’ve seen them many times live and my good friend has drummed with them for a few years so I got to meet them all. Andy always seemed a genuine down to earth funny dude. Saddened to hear he passed away yesterday. Rest in peace Andy x
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That is so sad to hear. Rip Andy!
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Very sad news, I met him once at a music competition in Wembley along with the rest of 808 State post Simpson, he said some nice and enthusiastic feedback about my track, and was a friendly and down to earth guy.
RIP
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Damn, only 53 years of age too.
Go easy brother and thanks for the inspiration.
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Sad news. RIP
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Sad news indeed, rest in peace fella. I grew up in Manchester and was educated by Darren and Andrews antics on the radiogram program, Sunset 102 every Tuesday night, the kicking FM.
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Shit.
This sucks.
Had the pleasure to meet him several times over the years. A proper, sound as a pound, gentleman.
Very sad news indeed.
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Very sad to read. Clearly they had a large influence on me. Losing Richard Kirk from Cabaret Voltaire and Lee “Scratch” Perry and now Andy Barker. This year is turning out to suck.
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That’s so sad. 808 State were hugely important in kindling my interest in dance music as a kid. RIP.
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I moved to Manchester early 1990 and listened to them on sunset radio / Piccadilly ( I think )
They had a good set of funny jingles and played lots of tunes I still listen to today.
Only 53 … rip.
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RIP Andy Barker, 808 probably the band that got me into dance music and techno etc, very sad
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Sad news.
Sad news. Got into this whole thing partially because of listening to the 808 State Show on Sunset as a teenager
“Make sure you don’t get pea wet in the crossfader”
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I remember one something along the lines of ‘climbing Mount Everest with the suction power of your lips. ‘
It’s where I first heard fsol, prodigy, orbital , man machine , rave , bleep techno , breaks… peak madchester.
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Sad news. They came to my town and I saw them in the restaurant of the venue while I was going tot the box office to get tickets. They said they didn’t know anyone and would I like to have their plus ones? I ended up having lunch with them. Lovely lads. Hugely influential on my interest in electronic music.
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For those that want to reminisce , here are a good few hours of '91 Sunset radio, makes me proud to be a Manc, better in my day etc (old git mode activated haha) …seems like only yesterday:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pcaf8lWQvAu7dcokkyUpMkum0f3JRZ6d/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16OvzZVNZ072Am-3m6lxuMIWw8trTbtdE/view?usp=sharing
[EDIT] Link updated so anyone can open/download and I don’t have to approve it 
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I had never heard of 808 State before…sounds awesome, and Mr. Barker sounds like a great person. I found this link too…huge archive!
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